On record and live, Beach House is a band that establishes its comfort zone instantly, and for better or worse, never leaves it. The band’s softly swaying dream-pop —particularly on this year’s Bloom and 2010’s Teen Dream—is built with grandeur, depth and the airy voice of Victoria Legrand. Keyboardist Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally add […]

The T-shirts said “A Moment of Loudness.” Iron Maiden played as the house music. And in the onstage collage of enlarged photos memorializing Ernie Gardner, there was one of a grade-school-age Ernie in an Iron Maiden shirt. Friends and family gathered at Club Congress to celebrate the life of Gardner, a longtime drummer who died […]

Phoenix singer-songwriter Lonna Kelley is a longtime favorite at Club Congress—but she’s taking a different road with her new band. Make My Baby is more of a collaborative effort—with three female singers, right out front—than Kelley’s alt-country bands Broken Hearted Lovers and Reluctant Messiahs. And Make My Baby captures an entirely different sound, a tom-thumping, […]

Lambchop’s first Tucson performance was a hushed and delicate affair—no surprise, considering the mellow frequency on which Kurt Wagner’s gorgeous and off-kilter songs live. Even for a band that tours infrequently, it’s a surprise that two decades and 11 albums hadn’t previously brought the Nashville band to Tucson, especially considering Wagner has collaborated with opener […]

Live band hip-hop is a rarity in Tucson. So when the Project arrived on the local scene—fully formed, with an eclectic sound that takes in soulful grooves, jazzy detours and spacey funk—late last summer, the fresh sound created a huge buzz. Releasing their debut Child Support (produced by Ian Carstensen at Loveland Studios), the Project […]

Bon Iver and Feist use the immediacy of live performance to make their songs swell with much greater intensity. And though the (sadly unfilled) Convention Center Arena might seem like an awkward venue, the cavernous space is well-suited for the sound of both bands. Feist came bounding onto the stage first, opening with a rocking […]

Arlo Guthrie is a national treasure in more ways than one. If he’d never written a song of his own, Arlo could still hold center stage with songs and stories from his dad, Pete Seeger and Lead Belly. Conversely, if he weren’t Woody’s son, Arlo could still hold center stage with his own brilliant folk […]

Cults’ packed show at Club Congress on Sunday was—despite little in the way of new material—a promising introduction to the band’s next phase, signaling a shift toward cutting and catchy dance-rock. For one thing, Cults is much more fun in concert than one would expect based on the carefully constructed anonymity surrounding the band’s early […]